Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-07-08
THE TRAIN DISPATCHER.
A Man Who Holds the Life of Ever,
Passenger in His Hand.

| A Man Who Holds the Life of Every
Passenger in His Hand.
There is class Of railway employees,
| almost entirely unknown to passengers,
| whose responsibility is so much greater,
| and whose slightest omission might
| jeopardiZe the lives Of people on trains
| more than any oversight on the part Of
| conductors or engineers, that it is indeed
| strange that they are SO seldom mentioned
| in the public prints. This class is the
| train dispatchers, whose every order is
| implicitly obeyed by trainmen; and while
| the crew Of one train is responsible for the
| movements of that train alone, the dis
| patcher holds in his hands the lives Of
| every individual on every train on the
road; and on road having large traffic
| the duties imposed on him are very great
and arduous.
His position in the railway service is
unique; were all trains running on time
and provided for On the periodical time
table issued by the company, he would
have no duties to perform; but trains will
get delayed and occasions will arise re-
curing extra trains, or trains without
any specified time or rights, to be run over
the road, and then his services arc neces-
sary to avoid hours of delay.
All trains On railroads are divided in
classes, according to their importance;
generally two, passenger and freight;
and all trains of one class running in a
specified direction have the right of the
road, or need keep no lookout for trains Of
the same or a lower class running in the
opposite direction. Thus it is assumed
that on certain railroad trains running
eastward have the right Of way over trains
running westward; then an east bound
passenger train can run the whole length
of the road in entire disregard of all trains;
another passenger train going west need
only to look out for the east bound pas
senger train, while the freight trains
must keep out of the way of both passen-
ger trains and Of the freight train which
is running in the direction prescribed as
having the right of road.
Every one understands that all trains
are chartered, or have a time given for
passing each station, which time can in
no instance be anticipated, and hence all
trainmen know where all other trains
ought to be at any particular moment, If
on time; but as trains frequently and gen.
orally get late, the train of inferior class
must have its movement expedited by
some extraneous cause, or it may be de-
1ayed for hours awaiting a train that may
have been wrecked, or has been kept back
for some other of many causes. Then the
duties of the train dispatcher are of i'm
portance. He will probably give an order
to the delayed train by telegraph direct
ing it not to go beyond a certain place
which he thinks it can reach without diff
flculty, and he directs the opposing train
to proceed to the same place and there
81 -, %La%
the trains are enabled to pass each other
without any delay to either. His great
responsibility consists in that he may have
a dozen other trains in his charge at the
same time and in directing one train to
go beyond it's usual place to meet another
he may neglect to give an order to the
second train, and in such an event COLI
sion would probably ensue, much prop
erty be destroyed and probably lives be
lost.
1t will readily be seen that the slightest
mistake Of train dispatcher might cause
serious results; and in this respect his re-
sponsibility is probably greater than that
of any other individual under whose
charge the public are placed. Philadel-
phia Times.
Railroads In War.
Hc AISI lAI1IlS lOI d 10y VI Slil W AZ
member in considering war is that SOL
diers must eat. 1t is generally supposed
that the most important duty Of soldier
is to fight; but this is q mistake. He
must eat before he can fight, and more
battles have been lost because comman-
ders could not feed their armies than be-
cause they could not fight the enemy.
The control of the railroads is the object
Of every great campaign in modern war.
Whoever holds the railroads can move
troops and ammunition and food to the
important point more quickly than the
enemy. And everything depends upon
being stronger than your enemy at the
important point. One man is nearly as
good as another man, at least on the
average. Ten thousand men of one nation
are nearly sure to be worth 10000 OF an
other; and certainly in the great American
war, whore all the men were OF the same
nation, there was little difference in the
fighting quality Of the opposing forces.
One side had more dash, the other moro
endurance; one perhaps went into battle
more furiously, the other I should say
held out more stubbornly; but in the emo
the men on one side were about as good
for fighting purposes as those on the
other Whoever had most men. there
fore, WAS most likely TO win But they
must be equipped and fed. To have more
men than you can feed is worse than not
having enough.-St- Nicholas.